Planet – People – Prosperity: a new and more global approach for the construction sector
While standard building practices are guided by short term economic considerations, sustainable construction is based on best practices which emphasize long term affordability, quality and efficiency. At each stage of the life cycle of the building, it increases comfort and quality of life, while decreasing negative environmental impacts and increasing the economic sustainability of the project. A building designed and constructed in a sustainable way minimizes the use of water, raw materials, energy, land … over the whole life cycle of the building.
Sustainable construction also helps achieve gains in human health and prosperity.
Generally, people spend almost 90% of their life inside buildings. In the United States, the annual cost of building-related sickness is estimated to be at $58 billion. Consequently, healthy and comfortable indoor environments contribute significantly to human health and well-being and offer a large potential for reducing ‘external’ costs to societies through lowering diseases.
Beyond individual buildings, poor patterns of building development often lead to congestion and inefficient use of land, resulting in greater energy consumption and travel time, loss of productivity, polluted runoff to surface water and wastewater treatment systems, loss of agricultural lands, fragmented habitats, and fiscal stress to local communities.
Green Houses are not just for growing plants in!
